Google Maps API is the reason for vaccination appointments far from home, says Khairy

PUTRAJAYA: The mystery as to why certain vaccine applicants received appointments at other states or at locations far from where they reside has been solved.

Khairy Jamaluddin said this has been narrowed down to MySejahtera users using the Google Maps API for their address fields.

“For instance, somebody types Taman Bahagia, and all the Taman Bahagia in Malaysia drop down as suggestions on the Google API map.

“And they may have simply clicked on the first Taman Bahagia that appeared. As a result, they are sent to Taman Bahagia in Sandakan, Sabah, ” he said on Monday (May 31).

The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) coordinating minister said because of this, an additional feature has been added to MySejahtera.

“This is for users to confirm additional details of their address, including state and postcode.

“My message is to please go and update your address fields so that this (problem) can be minimised, ” he said.

Khairy said that an interactive helpdesk will also be another new feature in MySejahtera to assess cases where vaccine applicants have been sent to PPVs far from their place of residence because of the issue with the Google Maps API.